Famous Poems About Death

Below are the final stanzas from three famous poems about death. The first two poets see death in a positive light, an experience not to be dreaded, as by most people, but one to accept – the first with defiance, the other with anticipated pleasure. Emily Dickins describes her own death in terms of what she’s observed living in a Puritan family in Amherst, MA..William Ernest Henley (1849 – 1903 English Poet From “Invictus”

William Ernest Henley

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul.

William Cullen Bryant (1794 – 1878) American PoetFrom “Thanatopsis”

So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death,Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed awayWhat portion of me beAssignable – and then it wasThere interposed a FlyWith Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz Between the light – and me And then the Windows failed – and thenI could not see to see –